Theme Sneak Peek: eList

Today I am excited to give everyone a preview on our upcoming Business Directory Theme. eList will give you the power to create an online directory that supports the classic directory layout and user-based submissions. We have had many requests for such a theme over the years, so I am happy to finally start working on it! I hope that you like what you see 🙂

By Nick Roach

I am the founder and CEO here at Carpetcleaninghaddontownship. When I'm not hard at work on new themes, I enjoy writing an article or two on our blog!

I literally started working on a WordPress network yesterday, developing a marketing plan and defining my market. Today, you come out with a theme specifically targeted for what I want to do for the front page.

One request – can you make one or more darker or masculine styles for this theme? I love your work, and it’s very slick, but I work within the shooting industry primarily these days, and it’s hard trying to sell scalloped edges to a company that sells tactical rifles 🙂

Jimmy
October 17, 2011

I agree. Lately all the themes have been light colors. Any chanc we could get some darker colors like black and brown? Love what you guys do. Just renewed my subscription!

I really love elegant themes, you have some really unique and well crafted themes and I’ve used them for quite a few projects.

I have to say though, the last few new themes all have a very similar feel which doesn’t really lend itself to a wider use. Some of the earlier themes were a little more flexible in terms of using for either corporate or personal. These new ones not so corporate friendly I feel. Might just be I’m not a huge fan of the style being used.

Don’t get me wrong, your work is great and in general I really love how well crafted your designs are with all their little pixel perfect detail.

Nick
October 17, 2011

eList, Sky and HandHeld are similar themes? I can’t say I agree with that, as they all fill completely different niches and are quite unique. I also think the stark simplicity of eList is in contrast to the almost overly-graphical nature of Sky. I will certainly keep your input in mind though, thanks for the suggestion!

I understand (and agree) with what you’re saying. I also understand the comments of some of the others. I suspect it’s mainly a perception of the homepage.

The current designs more or less show the same type of homepage. The colours, fonts, are different, some positioning is different, etc. – No question! But it’s the general feel, vibe, style, that comes across as the same…

The lack of content can hurt SEO for the homepage in some situations.

Maybe switch it up and do something really radical!? Front pages with thumbs, sliders, galleries, etc. do get a tich tired after a time. 😉 (And I do love your work – It ROCKS!!!)

What do I mean by switching it up? Here are a couple themes you did that were VERY different:

Nick, I love your stuff, I think it was more just an observation that the type, colour scheme and general feeling for these later ones is much more specific whereas some previous ones lent themselves to wider application.

Hi Nick, another great theme. I don’t think that nomadone was saying the themes were similar, but the feel. Sky looks similar to others, till you try the demo. Then you realise its unique, and I feel equally suited to a for a personal blog or corporate website. Elist promises to be a great directory listing theme, so that is totally different, and hand held is a a mobile theme. What I believe Nomadone is getting at is Template layout, which often is identical to other themes. If you go to Theme forest you’ll see a variety of ideas of what a theme could look like and go. But these themes are $40 a pop and only one install, so there is no comaparison in value for money with Elegant themes. Most people would want you traveling in the direction you are heading, producing themes for business. That is where the money is. For your own personal websites, or if you are selling your services to others. If you are selling web services then a business will pay more. If all you want is a personal blog, I can’t understand why you can’t pick from those already available.
If you are blogging professionally, you would not worry about the look of the blog, as you would value an optimised framework for speed and SEO, and let the content do the work.

Nick
November 2, 2011

Yes, all of our themes are similar is style. That is because they are all made by one designer, me. ThemeForest is a collection of hundreds of designers. If you want access to every ThemeForest theme, you are going to have to pay a lot more than $40 🙂

Nick will this have a feature for premium clients? Example if someone wants to have priority/featured listing, they can request it or pay for it? Would be nice to have something like that for e10free.com project.

I will use this theme/list on a free hosting site my company runs. Since this is somewhat a free form of advertisement for the users, I don’t see this failing. And for me, this will be more community board than a public listing.

OMG yes! I have been trying to create a directory over at my site atwc1.com/directory/ using the WP-Directory-List plugin. If this theme makes that easier and offers a priority/featured listing option that is paid for I would be REALLY happy!

Nick,
Absolutely fantastic news. I love the fact you’re creating themes for specific purposes. Smart and much welcomed in the WordPress world. I CANNOT wait to kick the tires of this theme.

Please, please, please, if at all possible, enable a multi-variable search option so that people can search for items in a search box by multiple parameters. This is hard to find in a directory theme and is something I believe is very important in a theme.

James
October 17, 2011

I will be on stand-by for this one, Nick!

Will it have any ecommerce capabilities/payment options built-in to help monetize it?

I’d like to point out that many industries are effectively banned from PayPal. It would be very nice if you could integrate an additional provider – or better yet, build a consistent payment API that your community can use to add providers, and works across all of your future themes that include payment functionality.

As always, an amazing and beautiful theme. Will there be any plans to add in a paid directory feature or integration to do so? I’m thinking along the lines of PlacesDotCom.com and wpsiterental.com, of course.

Just a thought, but this would be a rich, featured theme that would make it excellent for those of us who are trying to help offline clients get online!

Great! Been waiting for so long… Can’t wait. Now I have left hotel reservation with payment gateway theme in my waiting list… 😉

TLC John
October 18, 2011

Nick, what a great idea for a community website to pull all the businesses together and give information to local people. I can see, this would be a great resource and look forward to seeing the finished product.

I want this NOW! 🙂 I’m really looking forward to this release as I have used alternative themes that haven’t quite cut it for me… as with all the Carpetcleaninghaddontownship I have used I’m sure this will deliver the goods.

I have 1 year searching for a WP Theme or good directory script, a month ago I expend a huge amount of money in this model of business, soo.. I have my site ready to go!

Your themes are suberp, the best on the net and your epanel is glorious! I know for shure this theme will be really good in the admin area and listing management!

But the desing lacks in functionality, the colors and forms dont cause impact on me, and the categories have much importance instead the listings!

I dind`t see space for advertising, reviews, events, map, etc!

Of course this only my point of view!

Regards!

Reena
October 19, 2011

Dear Nick,
the theme looks awesome! Two questions^

1. When should we expect it to be released?

2. I would like to use simple directory, with the ability to put listings under many categories..But I don’t want any submission and other features.. I plan to use it with my membership plugin. Will it be possible? or should I look for some other theme instead of waiting? Thank you in advance!

Reena
October 19, 2011

By the way, I used directorypress theme before, but it’s not suitable for my current projects. Too complicated and a lot of things that I would like to get rid of. I just need a simple directory theme or plugin, but the ones on the market are not working for me.

Fantastic looking theme!
Like others I have tried using directory plugins with existing themes as well as using directorypress, but in terms of design this looks a cut-above, and I’m sure it will be superbly coded and perform well too.

I have been playing with all sorts of plugins and templates in order to get my new project up and running for our community. And this is EXACTLY what we need. I have played around with a few others but they lack the simplicity and beauty, in short, they lack the ELEGANCE, of Carpetcleaninghaddontownship.

Just my 2c worth here…. it sounds like it’s going to be feature rich with featured listing and paid listings. I wonder if there will be a user based rating system of some kind as well 😉

These are great news! I think my local clients would be happy to hear about it. I would like for example find an easy way to host a free directory page for readers, affiliates, advertisers, independent professionals(i.e, lawyers, notaries, realtors,…), community or sport club members(soccer!). Invite them to submit a free simple advertisement listing for themselves on your blog.

The listings can include company name, a short description, and contact information including a company URL. The theme may include an admin tab that allows me to approve of listings before they appear live on the site. The admin can also edit and delete listings.

Also, plan to have/offer a premium version of this theme that allows you to promote a listing upgrade to your directory participants; the admin can set the cost and collect via PayPal/Google checkout, then the premium customers get to upload a logo and appear in the top ‘premium’ section of your Directory.

I heard Business Directory Listing is a great way to increase the SEO value of your site, and to monetize your community participation.
I can’t wait to try it out!
Thanks Nick!

Hi, guys I just want to thank you for you themes. They are fantastics end very easy to use and set up.
Actually I am desperate because you don’t have an ecommece theme that fits my necessity so I purchased a theme from theme forest.

I was looking for an elegant and easy to use (i mean for users) theme like this:

I like your estore but it doesn’t have the blog section so all posts will be displayed as product.

The theme I purchase is good and perfect to fit a clothes eshop but actually, I am really desperate because it is very had to set up and to get help it’s a real nightmare!!! Theme forest is not really easy to use and I think all is a bit confused.

If you will create a estore with blog section I will be glad to replace the forest theme with your!

Very nice theme! Just what I’ve been looking for, really like the idea of paid directory, and as always your themes are clean, well laid-out, etc.

Erik
October 26, 2011

This looks great!

Anyone know if user reviews will be available?

JP
October 27, 2011

Sorry to pour cold water on the the business plans of all of the above. Article Directories are FREE, do you really think your can do better that Ezine, Hubpages, Squidoo and the thousands of sites out there?

Google reduced the PR of the mainstream sites and the remaining have no value at all as they just contain spun content.

Do you really think you can get people to pay you for an inferior version of what is available for free.

I agree with the numerous people above who have said that the recent sits all have the same look and feel, from the washed out Cyan colors to the layout, just lame.

We need more mainstream themes, particularly more corporate type themes and more corporate colors.

Nick can disagree but in the end it makes sense to develop for the biggest markets.

As for Article Directory themes, well again there are numerous free ones out there.

Nick
October 28, 2011

I think you may be underestimating the versatility of the theme. First of all it’s not meant to be an article directory, though it could potentially be a directory of anything.

You could use it as a local classified listings page, and have people pay to sell things. It could be a local job board where people pay to list their resumes. It could just be a local business directory where people pay to promote their website. The point is that the theme allows for user generated content that can be placed behind an optional paywall.

Anyway, the fact that there are other directory themes available isn’t of any concern. There are also tons of free Blog, Magazine, eCommerce, Tumblr, and Photographer themes available. So why should I make any themes at all? I like to think, however, that our versions of these themes strive to raise the bar wen it comes to quality design and features. This theme is no different.

Sean
October 28, 2011

I really appreciate this directory theme. I’m sure it will be MUCH better than what’s out there. However, I will have to agree with some of the negative comments about the last handful of themes being similar. A lot of the newer designs are IMO not corporate or small business friendly. They seem more mom blogger friendly. Anyway, I hope I haven’t insulted you. Your designs are really unique and well thought out.

“As for Article Directory themes, well again there are numerous free ones out there.”

Uff, and they are absolutely terrible too.

Kamal Mohamed
October 27, 2011

Will we able to make a login page for people to not only post but also a password to send someone a reply to their post? I want to control both end users.

Andre
October 27, 2011

Hi, I think it will be kind of different directory. Especially because most templates on the market with integrated directory features don’t win.
Your designer abilities in mind, I again wonder how the loading page will be increased on this job?
Do You consider it having a small JS-overhead only?
CSS sprites?
Anything clever to make the site load lighting fast wihtout having it running on the fastest server on the earth?
I would really appreciate Your energy in this direction too, because a fast loading directory is a must.

Nick this may be a late request but for the next theme can you perhaps work on a system where members get access to list of downloadable content? Something similar to this site where the users have a selection of membership types and based on that membership type they get the ability to certain downloadable content. I don’t have time to work on something myself as client projects are higher priority so I’m submitting this request.

Art Derfall
October 28, 2011

I just became a member. This is my first post.

I will try this with a plug-in I purchased on the Warrior Forum. With one press of a button, I created a directory listing of Boston hair salons. With one press of a button I created multiple directories for all major cities. See my in-process boston-hair-salon.com to see it.

Are we getting close to release date yet? I have been checking this site like a woman possessed. I have my site up and ready- raring to go… just waiting for this theme. I know it will be worth the wait but I’m impatient, lol.

Looks like you should be about ready to launch eList. I’m excited as ever!
Google maps, paid listing and paid premium listings, user generated listings, but
what about a “five-star” or review feature?
Like a star-system or maybe just a “comment” section would suffice?
Really excited, coming out tomorrow right 🙂 Can’t wait!!!